Origins The Navy was rooted in the colonial seafaring tradition, which produced a large community of sailors, captains, and shipbuilders. In the early stages of the
American Revolutionary War,
Massachusetts had its own
Massachusetts Naval Militia. The rationale for establishing a national navy was debated in the
Second Continental Congress. Supporters argued that a navy would protect shipping, defend the coast, and make it easier to seek support from foreign countries. Detractors countered that challenging the British
Royal Navy, then the world's preeminent naval power, was a foolish undertaking. Commander in Chief
George Washington resolved the debate when he commissioned the ocean-going
schooner USS Hannah to interdict British merchantmen and reported the captures to the Congress. On 13 October 1775, the Continental Congress authorized the purchase of two vessels to be armed for a cruise against British merchantmen; this resolution created the
Continental Navy and is considered the first establishment of the U.S. Navy. and at one point was reduced to two in active service. In August 1785, after the Revolutionary War had drawn to a close,
Congress had sold , the last ship remaining in the Continental Navy due to a lack of funds to maintain the ship or support a navy. In 1972, the chief of naval operations, Admiral
Elmo Zumwalt, authorized the Navy to celebrate its birthday on 13 October to honor the establishment of the Continental Navy in 1775.
From re-establishment to the Civil War The United States was without a navy for nearly a decade, a situation that exposed U.S. merchant ships to attacks by the
Barbary pirates. The sole armed maritime presence between 1790 and the launching of the U.S. Navy's first warships in 1797 was the
U.S. Revenue-Marine, the primary predecessor of the
U.S. Coast Guard. Although the United States Revenue Cutter Service conducted operations against the pirates, the pirates' depredations far outstripped its abilities and Congress passed the
Naval Act of 1794 that established a permanent standing navy on 27 March 1794. The Naval Act ordered the construction and manning of
six frigates and, by October 1797, In 1798–99 the Navy was involved in an undeclared
Quasi-War with France. From 1801 to 1805, in the
First Barbary War, the U.S. Navy defended U.S. ships from the Barbary pirates, blockaded the Barbary ports and executed attacks against the Barbary' fleets. The U.S. Navy saw substantial action in the
War of 1812, where it fought numerous engagements with Royal Navy. It emerged victorious in the
Battle of Lake Erie and prevented the region from becoming a threat to American operations in the area. The result was a major victory for the U.S. Army at the
Niagara Frontier of the war, and the defeat of
Tecumseh's confederacy at the
Battle of the Thames. Despite this, the U.S. Navy could not prevent the British from blockading its ports and landing troops. But after the War of 1812 ended in 1815, the U.S. Navy primarily focused its attention on protecting American shipping assets, sending squadrons to the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, where it participated in the
Second Barbary War that ended piracy in the region, South America, Africa, and the Pacific. during the
War of 1812 During the
Mexican–American War the U.S. Navy blockaded Mexican ports, capturing or burning the Mexican fleet in the
Gulf of California and capturing all major cities in
Baja California peninsula. In 1846–1848 the Navy successfully used the
Pacific Squadron under Commodore
Robert F. Stockton and its marines and blue-jackets to facilitate the capture of California with large-scale land operations coordinated with the local militia organized in the
California Battalion. The Navy conducted the U.S. military's first large-scale amphibious joint operation by successfully landing 12,000 army troops with their equipment in one day at
Veracruz, Mexico. When larger guns were needed to bombard Veracruz, Navy volunteers landed large guns and manned them in the successful bombardment and capture of the city. This successful landing and capture of Veracruz opened the way for the capture of Mexico City and the end of the war. For two decades after the war, however, the U.S. Navy's fleet was neglected and became
technologically obsolete.
20th century demonstrating U.S. naval power in 1907; it was proof that the U.S. Navy had
blue-water capability. A modernization program beginning in the 1880s when the first steel-hulled warships stimulated the American steel industry, and "the new steel navy" was born. This rapid expansion of the U.S. Navy and its decisive victory over the outdated
Spanish Navy in 1898 brought a new respect for American technical quality. Rapid building of at first pre-dreadnoughts, then
dreadnoughts brought the U.S. in line with the navies of countries such as Britain and Germany. In 1907, most of the Navy's battleships, with several support vessels, dubbed the
Great White Fleet, were showcased in a 14-month circumnavigation of the world. Ordered by President
Theodore Roosevelt, it was a mission designed to demonstrate the Navy's capability to extend to the global theater. 1911 also saw the first naval aircraft with the navy which would lead to the informal establishment of
United States Naval Flying Corps to protect shore bases. It was not until 1921
US naval aviation truly commenced.
World War I and interwar years During
World War I, the U.S. Navy spent much of its resources protecting and shipping hundreds of thousands of soldiers and marines of the
American Expeditionary Force and war supplies across the Atlantic in
U-boat infested waters with the
Cruiser and Transport Force. It also concentrated on laying the
North Sea Mine Barrage. Hesitation by the senior command meant that naval forces were not contributed until late 1917.
Battleship Division Nine was dispatched to Britain and served as the Sixth Battle Squadron of the British Grand Fleet. Its presence allowed the British to decommission some older ships and reuse the crews on smaller vessels. Destroyers and U.S. Naval Air Force units like the
Northern Bombing Group contributed to the anti-submarine operations. The strength of the United States Navy grew under an ambitious ship building program associated with the
Naval Act of 1916. Naval construction, especially of battleships, was limited by the
Washington Naval Conference of 1921–22, the first arms control conference in history. The aircraft carriers and were built on the hulls of partially built battle cruisers that had been canceled by the treaty. The
New Deal used
Public Works Administration funds to build warships, such as and . By 1936, with the completion of , the U.S. Navy possessed a carrier fleet of 165,000 tonnes
displacement, although this figure was nominally recorded as 135,000 tonnes to comply with treaty limitations.
Franklin Roosevelt, the number two official in the Navy Department during World War I, appreciated the Navy and gave it strong support. In return, senior leaders were eager for innovation and experimented with new technologies, such as magnetic torpedoes, and developed a strategy called
War Plan Orange for victory in the Pacific in a hypothetical war with Japan that would eventually become reality.
World War II on 1 April 1945 The U.S. Navy grew into a formidable force in the years prior to
World War II, with battleship production being restarted in 1937, commencing with . Though ultimately unsuccessful, Japan tried to neutralize this strategic threat with the surprise
attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. Following
American entry into the war, the U.S. Navy grew tremendously as the United States was faced with a two-front war on the seas. It achieved notable acclaim in the
Pacific Theater, where it was instrumental to the Allies' successful "
island hopping" campaign. By war's end in 1945, the U.S. Navy had added hundreds of new ships, including 18 aircraft carriers and 8 battleships, and had over 70% of the world's total numbers and total tonnage of naval vessels of 1,000 tons or greater. At its peak, the U.S. Navy was operating 6,768 ships on
V-J Day in August 1945. , 27 October 1945, the U.S. Post Office issued a commemorative stamp in honor of the Navy and the end of WW2. Doctrine had significantly shifted by the end of the war. The U.S. Navy had followed in the footsteps of the navies of Great Britain and Germany which favored concentrated groups of battleships as their main offensive naval weapons. The development of the aircraft carrier and its devastating use by the Japanese against the U.S. at Pearl Harbor, however, shifted U.S. thinking. The Pearl Harbor attack destroyed or took out of action a significant number of U.S. Navy battleships. This placed much of the burden of retaliating against the Japanese on the small number of aircraft carriers. During World War II some 4,000,000 Americans served in the United States Navy.
Cold War and 1990s The potential for armed conflict with the
Soviet Union during the
Cold War pushed the U.S. Navy to continue its technological advancement by developing new weapons systems, ships, and aircraft. U.S. naval strategy changed to that of forward deployment in support of U.S. allies with an emphasis on carrier battle groups. The navy was a major participant in the
Korean and
Vietnam Wars, blockaded Cuba during the
Cuban Missile Crisis, and, through the use of
ballistic missile submarines, became an important aspect of the United States'
nuclear strategic deterrence policy. The U.S. Navy conducted various combat operations in the Persian Gulf against Iran in 1987 and 1988, most notably
Operation Praying Mantis. The Navy was extensively involved in
Operation Urgent Fury,
Operation Desert Shield,
Operation Desert Storm,
Operation Deliberate Force,
Operation Allied Force,
Operation Desert Fox and
Operation Southern Watch. The U.S. Navy has also been involved in search and rescue/search and salvage operations, sometimes in conjunction with vessels of other countries as well as with U.S. Coast Guard ships. Two examples are the
1966 Palomares B-52 crash incident and the subsequent search for missing hydrogen bombs, and Task Force 71 of the Seventh Fleet's operation in search for
Korean Air Lines Flight 007, shot down by the Soviets on 1 September 1983.
21st century exercises. The U.S. Navy continues to be a major support for U.S. interests in the 21st century. Since the end of the Cold War, it has shifted its focus from preparations for large-scale war with the Soviet Union to special operations and strike missions in regional conflicts. The navy participated in
Operation Enduring Freedom,
Operation Iraqi Freedom, and is a major participant in the ongoing
war on terror, largely in this capacity. Development continues on new ships and weapons, including the and the
Littoral combat ship. Because of its size, weapons technology, and ability to project force far from U.S. shores, the current U.S. Navy remains an asset for the United States. Moreover, it is the principal means through which the U.S. maintains global order, namely by safeguarding global trade and protecting allied nations. In 2007, the U.S. Navy joined with the
U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Coast Guard to adopt a new maritime strategy called
A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower that raises the notion of prevention of war to the same philosophical level as the conduct of war. The strategy was presented by the
Chief of Naval Operations, the
Commandant of the Marine Corps, and
Commandant of the Coast Guard at the International Sea Power Symposium in
Newport, Rhode Island on 17 October 2007. The strategy recognized the economic links of the global system and how any disruption due to regional crises (man-made or natural) can adversely impact the U.S. economy and quality of life. This new strategy charts a course for the Navy, Coast Guard, and Marine Corps to work collectively with each other and international partners to prevent these crises from occurring or reacting quickly should one occur to prevent negative impacts on the U.S. In 2010, Admiral Gary Roughead, Chief of Naval Operations, noted that demands on the Navy have grown as the fleet has shrunk and that in the face of future budget declines, the U.S. Navy must rely even more on international partnerships. In its 2013 budget request, the navy focused on retaining all eleven big deck carriers, at the expense of cutting numbers of smaller ships and delaying the SSBN replacement. By the next year the USN found itself unable to maintain eleven aircraft carriers in the face of the expiration of budget relief offered by the
Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 and CNO
Jonathan Greenert said that a ten-ship carrier fleet would not be able to sustainably support military requirements. The British
First Sea Lord George Zambellas said that the USN had switched from "outcome-led to resource-led" planning. One significant change in U.S. policymaking that is having a major effect on naval planning is the
Pivot to East Asia. In response, the
Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus stated in 2015 that 60 percent of the total U.S. fleet will be deployed to the
Pacific by 2020. The Navy's most recent 30-year shipbuilding plan, published in 2016, calls for a future fleet of 350 ships to meet the challenges of an increasingly competitive international environment. ==Organization==